HEALTH AND SELF-EMPLOYMENT

More and more people are becoming self-employed, yet little is known about the relation between health and self-employment. This thesis looks whether there is a difference in health profile between self-employed people and wageworkers. A general model for the effects of job type on health is the job demand control model (Karasek, 1979; Karasek and Theorell, 1990; Theorell and Karasek, 1996). Research has been done on the health implications of being self-employed, however this research was not able to draw a clear conclusion. By analyzing data from the panel study of income dynamics (PSID) this thesis aims to contribute to the knowledge of the relation between self-employment and health. The main results are that (i) self-employed individuals are more likely to have suffered or do still suffer from hypertension and cancer compared to wageworkers, (ii) the self-reported health of self-employed individuals is worse than the self-reported health of wageworkers, and (iii) self-employed individuals are less likely to have arthritis, asthma, and diabetes. Finally, (iv) evidence is found for a relation between self-employment and having a health condition in general.